The United Kingdom confirmed on Thursday that it has secured the sixth and final ratification needed to trigger its accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) by 15 December.
The CPTPP is a free trade bloc spanning five continents, comprising the Pacific Rim countries of Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan, which will encompass nearly 600 million people once the United Kingdom joins. Following Peru’s ratification of the UK’s accession agreement, the agreement signed under the previous Conservative Party government will officially come into force under the new Labour government.
This is good news for UK businesses, which are now one step closer to taking advantage of the opportunities that our membership of the CPTPP will bring, said Douglas Alexander, Minister of State for Trade Policy.
“My message to companies is to contact the Department of Business “We urge you to visit the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP) to find out how it could benefit your business, if you haven’t already. We are extremely grateful to all CPTPP partners who have already ratified our accession – Japan, Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, Vietnam and now Peru – and we hope many more will do so in the coming months,” he said.
The DBT said that more than 99 percent of current UK goods exports to CPTPP members will be tariff-free once the deal comes into force, helping businesses export more to CPTPP markets and contributing to the government’s priority of boosting economic growth. By 2040, the deal is expected to boost the UK economy by around £2 billion annually, according to official estimates.
Before Peru, five other CPTPP members ratified the terms of the UK’s accession: Japan, Singapore, Chile, New Zealand and Vietnam. This means that the agreement will enter into force with those members in mid-December and subsequently with the other members as they ratify it.
We continue to work closely with the remaining member countries that are in the process of ratifying the agreement, DBT said.
As the first country to join the agreement, the UK will be well placed to shape its future development, from influencing the development of the CPTPP’s rulebook to championing the group’s expansion into new economies, the department added.
India, which is not part of the CPTPP, is negotiating a stand-alone free trade agreement (FTA) with the UK and last month the new Labour regime had confirmed its plans to resume negotiations, which had stalled due to general elections in both countries. The talks, which aim to improve the bilateral partnership worth £38.1 billion annually, have completed 13 rounds under the previous Conservative administration.
“Our teams will be entering the trading rooms as soon as possible, focused on creating new opportunities for UK businesses so they can support jobs across the country and deliver the growth we desperately need.” Business And Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said, reiterating the newly elected government’s commitment to continuing FTA talks with India.
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